WP7 Notifications -- A bit of Windows never did anyone any harm

The Android notification system goes as follows: each incoming notification will pop up in the notification bar and, if your settings allow, vibrate or ring briefly. Pull down the notification bar in order to get more details and find the link to the notification.

WP7 Notifications is the counterpart for Windows Phone notifications. Find out whether this is more than a mere gimmick in our review below.

Features & Use

The Windows Phone notifications don't appear in the stock bar but rather in a new one which appears whenever there's a new incoming notification and then disappears again.

Incoming notifications can be treated in three optional ways: if you ignore a notification or swipe it to the left it will disappear after a brief while. Swiping a notification to the right ensures that all following notifications of the same sort will not be displayed for the time being. In order to generate a normal action simply tap on a notification.

Not every notification needs to be highlighted via WP7 in this way, which is why you can choose which apps WP7 should access within the app settings. Further settings include selecting a colour scheme and display time for individual notifications, and you can select vibrate or ring notifications for individual notifications as well as in a more general way.

Bottom line:

WP7 Notifications is an aesthetically appealing and practically useful and helpful app to have around. It's a good counterpart to the stock notification system to have on board.

In contrast to the stock Android notifications the WP7 notifications are nicely highlighted and thus lend themselves well to being designated to important notifications.

The individual settings options are a bonus, though the long lists can feel somewhat overwhelming at first.

It is doubtful that the app was made by the original creators, which may be a bit delicate.

Screen & Controls

Using WP7 Notifications is pretty straight forward and the app is adapted to ICS. That said, the long lists of settings options can be a bit disorienting . A possible solution that springs to mind: the devs could group settings into simple and advanced categories to help users find their footing.

The app's overall look is basic and sleek and it follows the design guidelines.

Speed & Stability

WP7 Notifications performed well throughout our test runs: smooth and reliable. It takes a while to load seeing as the main screen consists of a list of all apps installed on the device.

Price/Performance Ratio

WP7 Notifications is free and comes without any ads. It can be found in Google Play. If you want the full feature spectrum you can purchase WP7 Notifications Plus for EUR 1.99.